NIL 9 - Paragraph/Dialogue Switching

I apologize for the wait. I was out of town over the weekend visiting some friends from overseas. They are so funny. Don't play card games with them. They may be Christians, but when it comes to cards, they will KILL YOU. XD

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Paragraph/Dialogue Switching

Format. Most writers don't think about it much. They think of it like structure. In the words of K.M. Weiland, "Most uninitiated writers have two different reactions to the idea of story structure. Either they think it's great, but too mystical and lofty to be understood by common mortals, or they think it is formulaic hooey that will sap the art right out of their books."

Many writers think of sentence and paragraph format in the same way. That's a bloody shame, because a good format, especially concerning dialogue, can greatly enhance the readability of the text.

After all, the goal of format is ease of reading. A bad format makes a confused reader. A good format is when the reader enjoys it but doesn't know why, like the difference between a Hershey bar and fine chocolate. Hershey's has ruined us. We must learn to accept nothing less than a masterfully tempered chocolate.

But how is good dialogue format accomplished? Though this sounds odd, rigidly. You have to have the determination to stick to the format you've chosen except in rare circumstances. I use the format I do because I believe it is the most expedient to be able to continue the narrative smoothly with the least possibility for confusion. I loathe diverging from it for this important reason: it trains the reader to my style. After a hundred pages, the reader will know the difference between a thing happening between dialogue and who actually talks. They won't do this consciously. It's a small, subdued response bordering on the innate.

I know this because I do it myself. I automatically know. When a writer has written a specific way for hundreds of pages, there is little reason to suppose he'll change it all of a sudden.

Here is an example of what I mean:

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Richard winked at Mary. "What do you want?"

"A ship."

He started to walk away, gesturing for her to follow. "To where?" They rounded a corner. "Don't trip please."

"You don't need to know." She stepped over a box of empty milk bottles.

~~~~~

How many of you assumed someone else, probably Mary, spoke "a ship" instead of Richard simply because it was in a different paragraph? And that Richard said "don't trip please" because it wasn't put in a new paragraph? That is the power of format. When it comes to dialogue, it can be the deciding factor between a laborious conversation and a smooth one.

There are three rules for this depending on the circumstance. It also works well for action scenes.

1. Do not switch to a new paragraph unless the speaker has changed. This means not switching if another character does something between one person speaking UNLESS the paragraph gets too long. (This reduces the majority of confusion over the speaker and can also reduce unnecessary dialogue tags.)

2. Ignore #1 if another character does something between one person's dialogue that cannot be summed up in a SINGLE sentence. Ignore this rule if the action the character takes is extremely important and cannot be missed. Sometimes your most dramatic paragraphs are those single word sentences standing all by themselves.

3. ALWAYS switch to a new paragraph when the speaker has changed, no matter how often you have to. When you have two people talking back and forth at a breakneck pace (if you haven't experienced this, you will) than include an action beat or dialogue tag every three or four switches so the reader doesn't lose track of who is talking.

Here is a bad example of dialogue switching.

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Richard tripped over a bottle and slammed into the wall. Mary rushed to him. "Are you okay?" He blinked. "I should probably clean up."

Mary sniffed. "Yes, you should."

~~~~~

Who said "are you okay" and "I should probably clean up"? You really don't have a clue. It should be like this.

~~~~~

Richard tripped over a bottle and slammed into the wall.

Mary rushed to him. "Are you okay?"

He blinked. "I should probably clean up."

Mary sniffed. "Yes, you should."

~~~~~

Now there is no question over who said and did what. That is the power of format.